The author of this article, Hannah Cotts, called it to my attention: see Superstorm Insurance. Some excerpts follow:

At a total cost of $65 billion in damages, Superstorm Sandy was the second-costliest hurricane in United States history, behind Hurricane Katrina’s $108 billion in damages. Of that, an estimated $25 billion is insured, meaning storm victims without coverage are on the hook for a collective $40 billion from wind, flood, and fire damage.The insureds, on the other hand, have not had an easy road either, by any means.

Many insurers have found pricey loopholes that policyholders have to jump through before seeing a dime of payout. Even those that are insured often find out their coverage is not enough to completely restore their quality of life. What if both groups had the option — or were required — to purchase an all-encompassing suite of coverage for just this type of storm, a.k.a superstorm insurance?

While I am on the topic of insurance I want to share a very well-researched paper I turned up accidentally today in my personal library. It is titled Residential Insurance on the U.S. Gulf Coast in the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina; A Framework for Evaluating Potential Reforms; it was issued by the RAND Corp. as an Occasional Paper, in 2010. I am no expert on flood insurance, but I am willing to wager that many of the recommendations in the paper are still needed today, almost 3 years later.

I want to call your attention to the  March 26th posting on this blog, regarding the new CRS report on the federal legislation passed to help with recovery from  Hurricane Sandy. An excellent set of comments have come in since the initial posting; they appear at the end of the posting. They are worth reading if you are seriously interested in the current issues/problems.

One more resource: here is the direct link to the full text of the Executive Order that established the  Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding  Task Force.

In talking to various friends and colleagues who have been doing field work in the aftermath of Sandy, some of the reasons for Sec. Donovan heading the task force might be:

• He was a housing director in NY before taking the HUD job and the no. of housing units affected is huge
• HUD is the agency with the greatest amount of funding to devote to the disaster recovery
• He is highly committed to achieving resilience in the recovery, a cause championed by the White House.

The Diva is open to more information from readers. Feel free to chime in.
Thus far the work of the task force is rather opaque; the HUD website has not been updated for months.

An example of the difficult decision regarding mitigation measures for the Jersey shoreline after H. Sandy. Much A-Dune About Jersey Shoreline Project.

One more article on the same topic. April 7.

Related articles

• Seaside Heights Wants to Use “Jersey Shore” Money to Protect Boardwalk (complex.com)

I ran across this graphic and thought it was worth sharing.  It does make sea level rise more real.  I definitely can relate since I have lived in 3 of the 8 cities shown. Check out this site.

On April 6, the NYTimes published this article about melting icecaps, dealing with the topic of global warming..

Related articles

• You: Most in U.S. concerned about sea level rise, poll finds (latimes.com)
• Louisiana coast faces highest rate of sea-level rise worldwide (louisianaweekly.com)
• What America Will Look Like Under 25 Feet Of Sea Water (businessinsider.com)